The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Atlanta Civic Site supports the resident-led Community Investment Fund (CIF), which awards small grants to local leaders. This blog-post series highlights how recipients used their grants to improve the lives of young people and families in Atlanta’s Neighborhood Planning Unit V (NPU-V).

In this post, Larry Witherspoon, co-founder and executive director of the Automotive Training Center, shares how two CIF grants have helped expand career opportunities for young people in Southwest Atlanta.

“The Automotive Training Center’s primary focus is employment, because it’s the number-one factor in preventing people from reentering jail or prison. We equip young people ages 15–25 who are on probation or at risk of incarceration with the skills and connections they need to start a career in the automotive repair industry. Beyond that, we work with them to instill three core values: confidence, work ethic and a passion for learning.

“We want young people to leave the program with these three things and with the energy to focus their minds and bodies on everything they want to accomplish. These are smart, bright kids who just need someone to believe in them and help them see the gifts and talents they already have.

“Program basics: Our eight-week entry-level technician program helps participants master everything from oil changes to tire replacements and vehicle inspections. Young people get hands-on experience with real customers, and they are getting an opportunity to earn money while they train for bigger career opportunities. When they complete the program, we connect them with dealerships and independent shops in the area.”

Giving Compass' Take:
· This Associations Now post discusses a new study that shows how nonprofit leaders try to sweep programs that don’t work under the rug. But, as the author argues, being open about mistakes is good for everyone.
• The path to a more impactful strategy begins with failures. Once we learn from our missteps, we can take action to make sure the next programs are airtight.
• Read more about nonprofit failures and the secrets to startup success.
When I interview an association about a new program it’s launching, I usually ask the same question: What does success look like? The question serves two purposes. Overtly, I’m interested in what KPIs/metrics/what-have-you the association is concerned with as it gets its new idea off the ground. And on another level, I’m trying to learn something about the association’s general strategic approach to projects — often, I’ll hear about the process behind defining “success,” what stakeholders were involved in that, and how it divvies up ownership of a project.
Luckily, most associations have good answers when I ask. So, it’s a useful question — clever me, I’ve thought. But it may be that I’ve missed something important here, because there’s another question that’s just as valuable that fewer associations ask: What does failure look like?
I come to this after reading a new report from the Center for Effective Philanthropy, “Understanding and Sharing What Works,” which suggests that nonprofits have a habit of retreating into silence and deflection when it comes to the programs that don’t work out. A plurality of foundations surveyed (42 percent) say they share none or “very little” information publicly about what isn’t working in their programming. A third of CEOs surveyed say their organization “faces pressure from its board of directors to withhold information about failures,” and 40 percent of leaders say they have little or no knowledge about the failures of other organizations’ efforts.
Read the full article about sharing your failures by Mark Athitakis at Associations Now.

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